Prince...

Lin, I didn't know you studied with BlackTaoist. How often do you see him? I was hoping to find out what the music is he uses in the clip of Lu Zijian on youtube. Someone said it was Oliver Shanti, but I have a lot (like 5 or 6 CDs!) of Oliver Shanti cd's on MP3 and I don't have that track. Mr5vQm_i09I

I had some questions about this book. I've got a lot of books on my table (literally) so I've pushed Opening the Energy Gates to the side. My Taiji lineage came through Vietnam and it's different from what I've seen online from other Yang style practitioners, so I had a question about the Cloud Hands that Kumar has in the book. I may pick up the DVD so that I can actually see how the exercises are supposed to look in the future. If I were still in San Diego, I would definitely drive up the coast to attend the workshops. I don't consider myself a Taoist, but if I move back to the West Coast, I definitely want to learn Kumar's Neigong.

Dave Whitley KB Snatches y46E8euCMzs Dave Whitley Showreel: KB Swings at ~2:28, I would suggest not trying the pancake flips, though! QcwGXapR-Wg In addition to being RKC certified, his Southern Praying Mantis is awesome! I worked out with him for 3 months this summer in the mornings.

Thanks Mike!

This is exactly why the people who seem to have good teachers will not mention them on this forum, and lately I have to say they have a good reason for not sharing.

Remember the part on Superman II when Clark gives up his powers, becomes a regular mortal, picks the fight with the guy in the diner and gets punched in the face? "I'm bleeding! Lois...I'm BLEEDING!" That's how that guy looked when he got punched in the face.

No harm, no fault, brotha...in the end it's all surrender to the same source, just some climb up the mountain with no tools, some walk barefoot, some hike up the mountain, and others break out the mountain climbing gear. We're all trynna climb the same mountain and reach the same source, it's just our methods and points of view that differ. Nothin but love brotha!

Why does there have to be a difference between these? The way I see it, they all surrender to the same source. Christ is the finger pointing to the moon, yes, without the finger, us Christians would not know where the moon is, what the moon is, or that one even exists. The problem is that too many Christians have gotten caught up in the finger; thus they have surrendered to the finger and forgotten all about the moon. The highest point of any tradition is the surrender to true nature.

Thanks for your input, Jane. Like my Taiji brother told me, Bruce has the goods. He said I should try to attend one of his seminars or meeting him at a tournament to get some advice...but then he said "don't be too hurt if he puts your ass through a wall, just take your humble pie and go practice."

MY gongfu brother and his Sifu have both played push hands with BK. From what I've been told, he's got the goods, but he does have a reputation for hurting his students. I won't say this is due to a lack of control on his part or something his students seem to be missing, but it does seem to fall in line with what I've heard on various forums. It sounds like you have a good teacher already. I say check out his seminars or find out if he will be attending a tournament. You may like him, and you may not.

Hey Jane, Thanks for posting that video...it is even creating a bit of a buzz over on Emptyflower. I did not know that you know Mo Ling! Wow, small world. If I ever make it up to San Francisco, maybe y'all can give me some pointers with my Tai Chi...Mo does Chen style, though, right? I do Yang, but it doesn't matter, as long as it follows the same principles, right? You should do another one with more Bagua! Your curly hair goes good with the whole spiral effect.

Thanks for this Lin... I'm gonna get laughed at, but I would love to do Wushu more than anything. I love to compete, and I love the athleticism that it involves. But I also value the little bit of meditation that I know...I often wondered what will happen if the two are combined.

I watched one of your youtube vids back in December when I was still in San Diego. I just watched the beginning Meditation video about an hour ago. Thanks for doing this...it's cool that you're here on TB, I had questions to ask you last year when I first saw one of your videos! Thanks for doing this for those of us just starting out!

Did Someone Say COBRA KAI??? uFlQNtL8F9s

There is a video floating around the web showing that "confrontation." It was not pretty at all, that's all I'll say about it. As far as William Cheung's Traditional Wing Chun, I was told to stay away from it, only because there are differences between his stuff and our stuff and my teacher did not want me to get confused. I have heard good thing about Emin Boztepe's students. He has a wrestling background, I believe, so he teaches a lot of takedowns and some grappling when he does seminars. I think the late Bernt Wagner was one of his students, I can't say anything for sensitivity and such from a youtube video, but that guy was fast! As far as developing external fighting skills, those guys will definately develop someone's hand speed!

Cool, the top school on my list is in Miami Gardens...so hopefully I'll be headed that way this time next year! I would love to hang out and talk sometime in person...

Santiago, you're in Miami if I'm not mistaken?

Well, if things work out, I may be moving to Florida this time next year. I'm studying for the LSAT, right now. I am sure I will have very little time for kungfu for the 3 years I'm in law school-- but the plan is to be able to live in an area with a good MA community...or to at least be able to travel overseas to learn from some good teachers. For now, I just stand (Yiquan) in the mornings for about 45 minutes, and sit for 30 minutes at night before bed. I have been slacking on doing my Sil Lim Tau and Taiji the last few weeks, though. I don't really understand the applications in Taiji, right now. I have only been doing it for 2 months. Usually I practice Grasp Sparrows Tail, as I only know the form up to Single Whip in the first section in the Yang style long form.

This is one of the best threads(in my opinion!) that I've read on TB. I guess because, like Pranaman, I'm doing Taiji and Yiquan and considering Wingchun....except that I started out doing Wingchun,back in California, and if it were my choice, would stick with Wingchun exclusively. Unfortunately, Nashville does not seem to be a hotbed for kungfu. I found out there is a Tae Kwon Do Grandmaster running a school here, so it's a decent place, I guess, for Karate and Tae Kwon Do...not so much for kungfu, especially internal styles.

I'm glad I wasn't the only one that raised an eyebrow when I read that!

I hope you're not gonna be hotracking... you're gonna feel a lot more than Qi!

that was awesome...I have never seen push hands like this in person.

This makes me want to go back outside and practice more. I really don't understand what's going on at all, though...thanks for the explanation! I think I just am going to have to find someone of this level to feel what it is they are doing. One of the teachers I e-mail regularly he drops people in his demonstrations and leaves me thinkin "okay...what did he just do?"

I know Pranaman has been practicing Yiquan with his Taiji, as have I. I have been doing the 8 postures (Zhuan Zhang?) for about 2 months now. My plan is to work up to standing in each posture for 5 minutes, but right now I am only up to 1:30. Anyway, this week, I noticed that by the time I get to the 6th posture, that my legs start to shake. By the time I get to the 7th posture, the tremor spreads to my trunk and arms as well. These tremors last throughout the remainder of my standing which I always conclude by rubbing the Dantien region. I would ask my friend who is teaching me about this, but I am out of town at the moment;when I get back in town, he will be competing in a tournament in Baltimore, so I will not see him for the next 2-3 weeks. The reason that these tremors have me worried is because I suffer from Essential Tremor-- meaning I have tremors on my own! My ET is mostly just in my head and usually only occur when I am extremely stressed, fatigued, or overly anxious about something. Also, when my tremors start up from ET, they don't just go away just from standing still, I normally have to sleep them off. Also, these tremors don't seem to hurt like my others do. I just thought I would ask. It was suggested to me by a Qigong teacher that I drop Praying Mantis, which I was studying, because it would not help me deal with tremors. I think there were other contributing factors to the tremors emerging before that I won't discuss here. Oh well, if this is a sign that I'm not doing something right, I'm open to some criticism. I'm just trynna improve my kungfu and do whatever I can until I find a teacher.

I checked out that site...man, I really want to move back to California.